When Apple introduced the Macintosh in 1984, people wondered whether everyone would need a personal computer one day. As the Mac prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary on Friday, the same question hangs in the air.

The all-in-one Macintosh simplified computing for the masses with an intuitive point-and-click interface and pull-down menus. Today, ever-powerful smartphones and tablets are doing more of the tasks once reserved for the PC, raising questions about what role the product category will play in the future.

None other than Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder and prime mover behind the Macintosh, said in an 2010 interview that the technology industry was entering the “post-PC era.” He compared the PCs changing status to how trucks took a diminished role when the U.S. shifted to an industrial nation from an agrarian one.

“PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them. And this transformation is going to make some people uneasy,” he said. “I think we’ve embarked on that change.”

In interviews at Apple’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., senior executives stressed that the “post-PC era” doesn’t mean the end of the Mac. Instead, they see an evolutionary process where the Mac, along with the iPhone and iPad, remains part of a spectrum of computing devices available to consumers depending on what they want to accomplish.

Bud Tribble, Apple’s vice president of software technology and one of the original members of the Macintosh development team, said the “post-PC era” phrase is misleading because the PC isn’t going away. It will, however, no longer be the only way to perform computing tasks.

“Ultimately we believe performance differences between mobile devices and PCs aren’t a determining differentiation anymore,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing. “It’s about form factor and what fits different parts of your life.”

Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president for software engineering, added that the central role of the Mac has been replaced by the cloud–the ability to store data and run programs over the Internet. As a result, all devices capable became “peers” instead of “satellites” to the computer, he said.

But there’s plenty of evidence that the PC’s economic impact is waning.

According to research from IDC, global smartphone shipments are estimated to have exceeded one billion units in 2013–or triple the size of the PC market. By 2017, IDC expects annual shipments of 1.73 billion smartphones and 400 million tablets worldwide.

By contrast, sales of PCs–which had their worst year ever in 2013, falling 10% to about 316 million units–are estimated to remain roughly flat at 320 million units by 2017.

For its part, Apple’s Mac shipments fell 10% in the fiscal year ended September. But the company has been faring better than its competitors. IDC analyst Jay Chou said Mac shipments outpaced that of the broader PC industry in 2013 for a seventh straight year.

Apple is not one of the world’s five biggest PC manufacturers by shipments, but it has managed to avoid the relentless price erosion and shrinking profit margins that has plagued its PC peers. Toni Sacchonaghi, a senior analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., estimates that Macs comprise about 5% of global market share by units, but account for more than 50% of the industry’s profits.

Gartner analyst Van Baker said Apple’s strategy of only offering high-end computers makes it a unique player in the industry. “Apple doesn’t have to fight the battles that the other PC makers have to fight to drive the margins out of the business,” he said.

And the company insists it keeps driving the Mac forward, despite the perception that PCs are struggling to keep up with innovation in smartphones and tablets.

Apple’s ultra-thin MacBook Air, upgraded last year with a model with long battery life, is one example. Another is its new Mac Pro, a cylindrical desktop computer that is much smaller than the tower it replaced.

“The Mac remains strategic to us as far as the eye can see,” Schiller said. “It’s not going anywhere.”